The Valley of the Death Goddess is possibly a reference to Issus, whom the Therns worship.

Panel 4:

Gorilla King, Ruthazek by Mauricio Herrera

Xanesha mentions an alliance of Empress Camilla’s has barred simians of all kinds from the Shareen Arena. According to Mona, Issue #2 will introduce us to the other side of the alliance, Gorilla King, Ruthazek from Pathfinder’s own world of Golarion.

Page 25

Panel 5:

Frank Frazetta’s depiction of Pha and Thun’da

Pha appeared in the original Thun’da comics by Frank Frazetta and Gardener Fox.

Panel 6:

“I’ve killed three minotaurs, an ogre, a woman made…I think she was part metal.”

I’m not sure who the woman made of metal could be, but it sounds like a reference.

This looks to be a collection of spectators from multiple fictional worlds. The golden robot looks some-what familiar, but I can’t place him. According to Mona, the shouting guys with helmets are meant to be Red Martians from Barsoom, but there was a coloring mistake.

I’m not sure if her scepter is a reference to anything, or if it’s an original item for this series.

Page 28

Panel 1:

Red Sonja as depicted by Frank Thorne

Enter Red Sonja, the She-Devil with a Sword, based on the heroine first created by Robert E. Howard, Red Sonya of Rogatino in the historical adventure “The Shadow of the Vulture” in the January 1934 issue of Magic Carpet Magazine, adapted into a Hyborian Age comic book character by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith in Conan the Barbarian #23 in February 1973.

For more information on the pulp sword-and-sorcery origins of Red Sonja, check out one of my past episodes:

If you’re interested in video games, I’m willing to bet you’re familiar with mods and the mod community. Mods are fan-made modifications to games already in existence. I was recently made aware of a mod for a World War II Super Hero video game that swaps out the pre-existing super hero characters and their missions with a wide variety of pulp heroes and pulp-styled missions.

The video game in question is Freedom Force vs. the 3rd Reich, which was originally created by Irrational Games back in 2005 for the PC. It’s now available to download via the Steam store. This is a real-time tactical role-playing game where you control a group of heroes who time travel back in time to World War II and fight the Nazis.

I’m somewhat familiar with this franchise as the artwork always caught my attention due to its strong Jack Kirby influence, but I can’t say I’ve ever investigated it too deeply. Given the premise, it seems to be an ideal base product to insert some pulpy goodness.

With the Pulp Adventures Mod by Benton Grey, rather than the stock heroes, players control the likes of Doc Savage, The Shadow, Indiana Jones, The Green Hornet, Kato, the Rocketeer, The Spider, The Spirit, The Lone Ranger, Tonto, Tarzan, Conan the Barbarian, The Phantom, Captain Midnight, Miss Fury, Dick Tracy, Jungle Jim, Kolu, Monk Mayfair, Ham Brooks, and Renny Renwick on a unique campaign of 17 world-spanning missions. Also, according to the website, “the story features several classic pulp villains and a twisting, turning plot that ties into the settings and adventures of many of the starring characters.”

In addition to the huge cast available in the campaign mode mentioned above, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and John Carter of Mars are playable in the sandbox mode at the moment.

Pulp Crazy: Thanks so much for agreeing to this interview, Douglas. Your name is a familiar one to pulp fans, and it’s an honor to interview you on Pulp Crazy. As someone who owns a number of the Moonstone anthologies your covers adorn, I love your illustrations of pulp characters. How did you first get interested in the pulps?

Douglas Klauba: Thank you so much! I started getting into pulp art at an early age, early teens while collecting comic books, monster magazines, and paperbacks. And because I was a Steranko fan, I collected his Shadow and other paperbacks that he did covers for, like Weird Heroes. Eventually, Steranko’s Chandler was released and it made a huge impression upon me as a young artist. I was then picking up the comic book versions of The Shadow, The Avenger, Doc Savage, Conan, and John Carter of Mars. It all started to click with me that these new interpretations came from an original source, aside from old time radio… and I ended up becoming a bigger fan of pulp heroes over comic book heroes.

Pulp Crazy: Who are some of your favorite pulp artists? Do any particular pulp covers stand out in your mind?

Douglas Klauba: J. Allen St. John, Rudolph Belarski, Walter Baumhofer, Norm Saunders, Virgil Finlay, Edward Cartier, George Rozen, Rafael DeSoto, and Hubert Rogers. I don’t think I could pick a favorite cover… way too hard: maybe a Rozen cover of The Shadow or a Doc Savage. I do love many Astounding covers by Hubert Rogers.

Douglas Klauba: Very much so. From figurative, colors, lighting, and composition. I also enjoy working in a black and white pulp influenced style.

Pulp Crazy: What is your favorite genre to draw? Do you find yourself more at home with the hero pulps, science fiction, fantasy, crime, or some other genre within the greater realm of the pulps?

Douglas Klauba: I really do love all that you’ve mentioned. I’ve been fortunate to have been hired by Moonstone for many of their pulp hero books. I like developing paintings with science fiction woman with plenty of retro ray guns and space ships. I’m also a huge fan of the hard boiled private eyes and detectives. I plan on continuing a personal series of paintings in that genre.

Pulp Crazy: What pulp character do you enjoy drawing the most? Is this your favorite pulp character?

Douglas Klauba: While I’m a huge fan of The Shadow, and Doc Savage, as well as The Spider – I really like illustrating crime / detective images. I think I enjoy all the characters equally. I’ve never illustrated The Shadow in color but hope to in the next couple of weeks, after I finish my current painting I’m working on of John Carter, Dejah Thoris, and Tars Tarkas.

Pulp Crazy: Do you have a particular pulp series or character you enjoy reading?

Douglas Klauba: I really enjoy the John Carter books. Some days I like to read The Shadow, while other days I’m in the mood for The Spider.

Pulp Crazy: Outside of pulp characters, what other types of illustrations do you like to create?

Douglas Klauba: Anything to do with movies! I recently completed a commemorative poster for the Clive Barker film, Lord of Illusions. I’m also working on an original pulp inspired adventure graphic novel, that I hope to finish one day….

Douglas Klauba: I really owe it all to my friend, Bob Garcia. We were discussing projects one day, probably at the Windy City Pulp and Paperback Show, and he really got the ball rolling. I wanted to put some of these pulp themed images in a collection of some sort. Bob ended up presenting a calendar design that blew me away, and then he redesigned it – and it blew me away even more. He also helped me decide on which images.

Bob and I have worked on many book covers and poster projects together. I love his art direction, I trust his judgement, and we work really well together. After his successful, and beautiful The Collectors Book Of Virgil Finlay on Kickstarter, he thought that I could publish this with his guidance. I’ve been pleasantly surprised finding out that there are art fans, and pulp art fans that want to hang my work up every month. So, here we are days away of knowing if the Adventure Calendar will be fully funded or not.

Pulp Crazy: Do you have any other pulp related projects in the works that you can talk about?

Douglas Klauba: Well, as I mentioned, I’m working on a black and white pulp inspired graphic novel. I have a few commissions lined up that need to be taken care of. There are a couple of other projects that are too early to discuss, but I’d be thrilled to announce once they begin.

The Shadow Sanctum – http://www.shadowsanctum.com/pulps.html Sanctum Books publisher Anthony Tollin’s personal site. Doc Savage reprints are available here Also browse around the site as it has some very interesting articles on the pulps.